This was qualifying, in Q2. I had been editing up until the end of Q1 and then got out on track for the middle session. I saw Fernando Alonso crawling round the corner and knew he wouldn’t be able to get up the hill, so he’d have to get out of the car – and immediately there’s a picture. So he pulled up and the marshals took a while to get to him and he started pushing it. I managed to catch a shot of Vettel’s Ferrari passing Alonso pushing the car. I thought it was quite a nice picture because Alonso left McLaren for Ferrari and Vettel took his seat. This image shows the contrasting fortunes they’re having this year – even more so as Vettel went on to win the race.

This was FP2 and I’d been at the chicane, getting shots of cars jumping the chicane, so I went off to look for some other angles. It was quite hot but I decided to walk and I saw this pan shot against the crowd and put my long lens down. As I put the long lens down the crowd started cheering and I looked up and there was Daniel Ricciardo right in front of me, plume of smoke coming out of the back. I thought he was about to catch fire so I put my other camera down, took the longer lens off for the wide-angle one and this here is the first shot I got pretty much. It was just amazing, he stopped right in front of me and I don’t think many other photographers got this shot. He then came over and had a little chat because he was concerned about how he was going to get back to the pit lane!

I did about 30 minutes of the race and then arranged to go up on the roof, which puts you in pole position for the finish shot, parc ferme and podium. As I got up there it was all kicking off – there were cars coming down the pit lane behind the safety car and I couldn’t understand why until I saw the replay. And then everything just happened in front of me, pit-stops, drive-throughs, everything. Being that nearby was great and I was right on top of Mercedes’ pit box so when Rosberg came in with his puncture I was right there to capture that because it was one of the key moments in the race and could be one of the big moments in the championship fight with Lewis Hamilton.

There’s some great emotion in this shot. The team was all ready for Sebastian Vettel when he came in and he was jumping around. To start with he stood on the car with the steering wheel, jumped down to the team, then he got the flags and got back on the car, jumped down and hugged the other drivers – he was constant and it carried on for ages. I knew I had already got a good set of pictures and there was plenty to pick from.

This one tells a great story, not only of the race but of the season so far. James Allison has become a bit of a hero in Italy for turning the team around. He’s a very nice guy, just a normal English guy working in an Italian team. It’s amazing how many English people have worked in that team and done the business. It shows you can’t just rely on engineers from your own country to be successful in Formula One – you’ve got to mixed it up a bit. This picture is of two of the new faces who have made such a big difference at Ferrari in 2015.

Camera model : Nikon D4S | Exposure time: 1/500s | Aperture: F13 | ISO speed: 1600 This was on Friday during the pit walkabout for fans. I went up and down couple of times and then heard these big cheers, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing to be honest. Ferrari obviously has an exercise regime before the pit stop routine to warm them up, so they started doing star-jumps, stretching and fighting – I was amused while I was taking them to be honest. I’ve never seen pictures like this before and usually I’m not there that late but on this occasion the pit walkabout went on later than usual. The crowd was cheering them as they went along as well.

I saw Seb come out of the Ferrari motorhome and all of a sudden out popped Bernie Ecclestone from his motorhome and he grabbed Vettel. I’d read the stories about Vettel having a bit of a go at Formula One and I just managed to hear the conversation and Seb said something along the lines of “it’s just what I said in a meeting and someone made it more than what it is”. Bernie seemed a bit aggravated and had his arms in the air, it was very interesting. They spoke for about a minute and Seb went to wonder off but they continued on chatting. More photographers turned up, which ruined my exclusive a bit, but I was able to get right in there close from two angles and listen in a bit to what they were saying. It was a nice set of pictures and it was good to get the Wing in the background to show it was at Silverstone.

When I was watching this unfold, I thought it was a totally illegal overtaking move, but I didn’t realise the safety car line, from which they are allowed to race, is on that straight. I just kept my finger on the button anyway because it was a good moment and the crowd were going mental behind us. Of course it shuffled Hamilton down the pack because he had to cut the corner and then fell behind Valtteri Bottas. We needed the two Williamses in front, because without that we wouldn’t have had as exciting a race. I’m sure the fans would have cheered Lewis in the end, but it was nice to see a bit of genuine racing at the front before the pit stops unfolded and Hamilton got back ahead. The only thing you can’t see here is the grandstand behind, which was empty. It was the only part of the track where that was the case and it’s because it’s the Paddock Club grandstand. The guests don’t go and sit there because they have all their food and hospitality in the Wing overlooking the pit straight and the pit lane, so why would you? It’s a shame because the whole track was full of 140,000 people and you’ve got two or three grandstands in a good place sitting empty.

It was pouring down at this moment and I didn’t have my rain cover with me, but I didn’t care and I was laughing to myself that I hadn’t taken any waterproofs. I was just concentrating on people coming out of the last corner and it paid off because Kimi lost it, did a tankslapper and then half spun and caught it. The crowd were going crazy because he managed to hold it and I just followed it all the way through. I knew someone was going to spin, I think Mehri spun as well, and you could see them struggling because they were the drivers on old intermediates that they had swapped to too early. It’s always nice to capture a bit of action and there was plenty going on when the rain hit all around the track, some of which the TV cameras didn’t catch.

You can see the level of support Lewis had in this photo. The guy in foreground actually looks like more of a football fan than an F1 fan with his shirt waving above his head! The security were quite good, however, because they let the fans have their moment even though a lot of them were climbing on the pit wall and on the Mercedes pit gantry. Normally the teams would tell them to get off, because those are worth a lot of money and could be damaged, but for this moment they let the fans celebrate even though some were blatantly standing on the equipment! For me it created this fantastic picture because this moment was all about the fans. I saw that the startline gantry was a good spot to go because I did the usual team picture and then moved myself for this shot because I knew he was going to come across to the fans. It created a great picture and a great atmosphere. In a way it’s a shame the podium wasn’t built out over the pit lane and track like it is in Monza, but I suppose you can’t have everything.